How did Lunar change you?

[Roas Atrades]

Considering the current events, I think this is a valid question to pose.

Since its inception, how has Lunar changed your life? What has your exposure to it done to make you who you are today?

I picked up Lunar in 1993/94 when it first hit our shores after reading about it in an EGM. I got it shortly thereafter, yet right as I got it, my first SegaCD broke. So I rented a SegaCD to play it on, not realizing yet that CD's did not save games on themselves but on harddrives. So when I returned the rented console, I had to start TSS all over again on my new SegaCD (which I still own to this day).

Now, this was my first experience with Lunar, but it would be until 1996, when I found the Shrine's Library, that I got the idea to write a story for Lunar.

At that point Lunar opened me up to what is for me, my truest love in the world.

Writing.

Lunar was what got me started in writing, which is my one true love in this world. Without Lunar who knows how many years, if at all, it would have taken before I started writing. Instead of having ten years of hardwork under my belt, I could just be starting out with no grasp on how to put together a story, let alone write a novel.

And in writing I have learned so much more. Thanks to writing I have been able to find ways express my feelings constructivley, translating real life to expressive stories in order to gain new understandings. In creating characters, I've been able to experiment with the human condition, try to understand different people and perspectives in the world.

It is thanks to Lunar that I write with all the passion in my heart. In the regular, daily life, I may just be a chef, but in my priviate time I continue to write and write hoping that eventually some day I will get my original works published.

It is thanks to Lunar, thanks to writing, that I have become who I am today. Lunar started me writing, which gives me the most enjoyment out of anything else in the world. Thanks to Lunar, I found a way to put to words the stories and ideas running around in my mind. And it is my hope that I can eventually bring entertainment to many more with these stories, because nothing could be more gratifying for me than to bring joy to people through epic story telling.

That, my friends, is what Lunar has done for me outside of being just a fun game.

[GhaleonOne]

I'll come back and probably beef this post up a little more, but the jist of it:

Without Lunar, none of us would even be here, obviously. In addition, without Lunar, I would have never started the original LunarNET, which became RPGFan, nor would the second incarnation, which became GamesAreFun.com, have come about. Nor would this site be here, obviously. I would have also been 10 grand poorer, and may never have gotten as far as I've gotten in college without it. Lunar got me into WD games, and persuaded me to get a Saturn, for which I bought Shining Wisdom for. The rest is history.

[Dragonmaster Lou]

Let's see... Well other than going by "Dragonmaster Lou..."

Well, there was all the time I spent on my Lunar web pages and the Lunar fans mailing list, back in the day. It was one of the first Lunar sites anywhere, and the Lunar fans mailing list, despite all its troubles, could be considered an ancestor of this board we have here -- back in the day before webboards were that common.

I've also met some truly good friends, both online and in real life, courtesy of Lunar. I still remember meeting some of the Lunar fans who lived near me at "LunarCon" at Harvard Square way back when.

I started getting into AMV making by making Lunar AMVs, partly because ripping video from PSX games was the only way I could get source material from in those days.

Lunar also got me into role playing in general -- not just console games, but D&D, IRC games, and so on. Heck, my personal "mascot," Teal, is a Lunar blue dragon (though she usually spends her time in human form).

So yeah, Lunar influenced me a great deal -- and there are probably other ways it influenced me that I can't even think of right now.

[Angelalex242]

I would never have gotten obsessed with Lucia...

...Waitaminute...

Nevermind

[Katze]

Well, Lunar really affected me in a lot of different ways, but it's...rather hard for me to explain. So I'll just say how it affected me the most: art.

Lunar, as well as Toshiyuki Kubooka (sp?) obviously, greatly influenced my art. I've always loved to draw even before I discovered Lunar, but Lunar really influenced me to give it my all. It's mostly influenced my anime art, and it also helped me to come up with more creative character designs. As well as art, it's influenced my imagination, I guess you could say. I feel that my original characters and worlds would be less interesting if it weren't for Lunar (but this can be attributed to all games in general, even though Lunar was probably the most influential).

[Kizyr]

Hm, well, I played Lunar because I played Vay before then. And I got interested in Vay because I remembered playing Hero Quest back in the early 1990s (say, 1990-1992 or so). But to just pick up from Lunar...

Lunar solidified my love of RPGs in general. That alone shaped a lot of my entertainment interests. It eventually got me into anime in general, and got me to learn Japanese. Learning Japanese pushed me to take an interest in International Affairs, and pick the university from which I graduated last year. That university, being in the Washington, DC, area, is why I'm still around here and working at the company where I do work.

The Lunar -> Japanese connection is pretty direct. Playing Lunar: Walking School is what got me to learn to read quickly, and wanting to move up to the more difficult games (Tales of Phantasia, then the other Japanese Lunars) provided a pretty good incentive for learning how to read past a first-year level. Also, I never would have bothered reading Japanese novels at all if it weren't for the Lunar novels (those being the only ones I've actually finished {^^}).

The Lunar -> RPG connection is, likewise, direct. I didn't get into D&D until about a year ago, but that's kept me in close contact with a bunch of the friends I made during college for the last year or so. It's sort of shaped my music tastes, too, since I listen to a lot of RPG soundtracks while I'm working.

So, here's my prediction...

With Lunar:
- learned Japanese
- majored in international affairs
- went to school in DC
- began working in DC

Without Lunar:
- no harder foreign languages
- majoring only in economics (instead of doubling)
- likely would've gone to school in Tennessee
- would have a harder time finding work right now

In all, it's affected me pretty profoundly throughout my entire life. Just shaping the interests I have is a real major thing. KF

[Lunar6000]

Lunar guided me down the path of great RPG's... wait no the super nintendo guided me down that path...

However Lunar may have helped me stay on the path of it... and not becoming a Final Fantasy 7 fanboy. FF7 is way overrated and if you go to http://www.gamefaqs.com they have a poll about which working design title you most enjoyed and half the people said they never heard of any of them. Thats because most people started RPG's with FF7 and now they think its the best.. I however played many classic RPG games including the older final fantasies long before that which made me realize what a real good RPG... without Lunar alot of things in my life would of never happened... I would of never went by Magic Emperor Lunar...

However Lunar the game isnt how I got my alternate alias Lunar... its actually because of a game called Mischief Makers for N64 and my favorite character in that game was named Lunar.

To break it all down... I WANT LUNAR 3!!!

[Alunissage]

Interesting question, I don't think we've had this come up before.

As a single game, TSS opened me up to RPGs. I had seen a little of Phantasy Star 2 or 3 because my housemate (who had moved in and brought all his games and consoles a few months previously) was playing it, but somehow I only ever happened to be in the room when he was on the field, with its very boring music, getting into yet another random battle, with its almost nonexistent music. I didn't understand what was going on at all; I'd never played anything remotely like that. And the few times I was around when he wasn't on some field he was buying equipment and all these numbers looked like the most boring thing in the world. Then at some point he was working through some unplayed games a friend had given him, one of which was Lunar TSS. I wasn't in favor of it, but we started anyway. And the characters had some funny lines and the Burg music was interesting, but the White Dragon Cave really made me sit up and take notice. Eventually I realized that the spell lists and the stats and all weren't intimidating at all. So from this I learned about a new type of game, and I saw characters I liked and some funny one-liners, and especially I learned that games can have really excellent, expressive music.

We played Vay after that, and various other games (non-RPGs) and we found ourselves saying every time that "this game has good ___...not as good as Lunar, though." And perhaps this top-of-the-list status of Lunar in our gaming is why it never occurred to me that there might be other games of the same type; Lunar was so amazing it must be unique. It wasn't until summer of 1999 that I played a third RPG (though I'd replayed TSS several times). And that was because my housemate had heard of a remake, but all the stores were sold out so we bought Legaia. Which I really liked, by the way.

So...it demonstrated how great looping videogame music could be, it started me on RPGs, it led me online where I met many people including my fiancé, and it eventually led me to eBay where I proceeded to spend several thousand dollars. It resulted in my name being in the credits for a few games, which was cool. It indirectly led to the only time I've ever lived alone, which was probably a good experience for me. It made me think about creating games, though I'm unlikely ever to get farther than some handwritten notes, a few pieces of music, and a drawing or two. Oh, and the collecting led me to an interest in Japanese which I have yet to formally pursue, but even just learning katakana and hiragana and reading up on the language has been fun.

There are probably other things it's influenced, besides the obvious I wouldn't be here without it. Those are probably the most important, though. ^_^ I think it comes out on the plus side of the ledger.

[CRuckofBelAire]

As far as gaming, Lunar changed my life completely. I saw a preview for it in Gamepro like 13 years ago, and I thought it looked interesting with all the anime looking characters. I think a couple months later I saw it for rent at Blockbuster and I gave it a try. And the rest I say is history, I became obsessed with beating it, eventually convincing my mom to buy it for me. In any case, it opened me up to RPGs as well as the concept of fanfiction, and without playing that I probably would have never played games like Final Fantasy and Dragoon. Even though I got rid of my Sega CD I still kept the Lunar disc and the packaging.

[Temzin]

Lunar~Eternal Blue definitely showed me that RPG's could be fathoms deeper storywise and emotionally than any other kind of game I'd ever encountered...today, I'll still play other games for kicks now and again, but only a good story will really warrant my time, and Lunar set the bar high. I never would have thought it possible to laugh, cry, or get chills when reminiscing about a game before I ran into Lunar and its world. So Lunar probably affected me in the ways that Game Arts's Shigema and Miyaji always talk about: it's not an exaggeration to say that their thought on their fans wanting to live their lives more positively and pursue whatever they dream was exactly the effect Lunar~Eternal Blue had on me. The humanist philosophies and themes of love, devotion, and hope really left a big impact on me when I played the game in middle school way back, and it's still that way. The first ending scene of Hiero adventuring off into the unknown to find Lucia was always an inspiration. The stories from various favorite RPG's I played through after Lunar~EB have built up in my memory the way good books do; I feel richer for having those stories in my mind, I think.

[WD RPG WD]

To keep it short it helped me develop an emotional side to myself which at the time was severly lacking and I became a music major because of the inspirational soundtrack.

The only reason I played the game was because I was a SEGA nut and bought the Sega CD and all it had we're RPG's and I became addicted. First came Lunar then Vay, Dark Wizard, Eye of the Beholder, Eternal BLue, monkey Island, Popful Mail, Dragons Lair, Wily Beamish, and Finally Shining Force CD. Lunar was the first RPG I ever played.

[Sonic#]

Oh, gosh. It's such a tough question to answer. Let me try to think.

First, I played SSSC in late 1999-early 2000. I was in 8th grade. I'd played some RPGs, like Legend of Legaia and Earthbound, before. I enjoyed the genre. This probably further solidified my love for it. When before I was greatly into racing games and platformers as well (hadn't yet stumbled far into strategy), this made me spend much more attention and money, so that instead of getting a new Need for Speed game I would buy Grandia.

Less directly, such a broad interest in RPGs connected me with some of my friends. I'm not sure if I would have played Skies of Arcadia or Grandia II otherwise, both games that I had in common with people at school. As well, I wouldn't have met you people here, who have in some small way or another given me something. Whether it's some small encouragement, or Eric impressing upon me a (still infantile) appreciation of musicals and Sondheim in particular, or Kizyr's making me like the Civilization games even more (we should play online sometime, once I get back to school)... stuff like that. Small, but significant in its way.

It also furthered my drive into fantasy. If I had not played Lunar, I might have veered even further into sci-fi than I have. It probably made me start playing D&D as well, and may've helped me choose to join Wyrd, where I met my current gf.

The games made me optimistic in a time when, though life wasn't terrible, I certainly didn't share as much enthusiasm for it. Lunar 2 taught me to do the dishes, as I volunteered to do them for 2 weeks if my mom would forward me $20 more to buy the game. I played the EBC soundtrack in class one day, as an example of a song with poetic devices, and it made people look at me differently.

All in all, I'd say that today I'm a more upbeat person, with a greater love for stories and narration in anything, especially video games. Also, it has introduced me to a world of music removed from what is around here, in a refreshing way.

[SilverOcean]

You guys, with your great love of Lunar, influenced me to order Lunar TSS and Lunar EB. You also got me grounded for a week for using my mom’s credit card without permission.

[Kizyr]

You guys, with your great love of Lunar, influenced me to order Lunar TSS and Lunar EB. You also got me grounded for a week for using my mom’s credit card without permission.

Wow. I would've grounded you for a year for that, and took away all your things. KF

[SilverOcean]

Wow. I would've grounded you for a year for that, and took away all your things. KF

I had to pay it off later.

[Karthur]

Lunar brought me back to video games. I had not played them since the original Zelda was released (yes, yes, I know...I'm old) but Lunar rekindled my love for gaming...and my love for writing fanfiction.

[Racoati]

Lunar brought me back to video games. I had not played them since the original Zelda was released (yes, yes, I know...I'm old) but Lunar rekindled my love for gaming...and my love for writing fanfiction.

....actually, seconded pretty much to the letter. I hadn't played videogames for quite a while until I picked up EB, and I'd truly forgotten how much they'd always meant to me. Additionally, rekindling my love for videogames provided me with the drive to do something I've never done before - write and complete a multichapter fanfic (yes, it's Lunar. Yes, I'm rather proud of it. Given what it involves, you would probably all die horrible eyesporking deaths if you read it, but it's on the website linked below if you're curious).

But less concisely, this is the kind of insightful topic I don't typically expect of gaming message boards, and if the game had been SoM or FF6 I would have jumped to answer it with a set of well-worn tales; but even though this fandom's been so profound to me I'm still a bare newcomer to it, and my feelings on how it's affected me still aren't formed. It's frustrating, and I'd dearly like to form them, because unquestionably it has affected me; but it's not been long enough for me to put it into any kind of concrete perspective, not right now while I'm living it.

The closest I can come is to say that there are a lot of different emotional and spiritual threads running through it that resonate strongly with me, and while I haven't begun to properly identify what they are yet, I think this is a world that I'm going to find myself drawing a lot of spiritual grounding from in the future; a world I'm going to have a lot of experiences with. It's restored a drive and creativity that had faltered in the wake of personal events, and reinspired my search towards a sense of purpose, of knowing my place in this world and to what end I do what I do within it.

And above all... the world of Lunar feels like hope. I don't really know how further to define that; maybe it'll make sense to me later.

And if that sounds flaky... well, that's me. It's the way I've been since I was a kid, drawing deep meaning from these stories, and I've always been a happy soul for it.

[Soir-Lilac]

One thing I don't do all that well is judging the effect that following a paradigm has had on me. By way of happening it's had some effect but gauging quite how much is damn hard to do. :P

I found Lunar (or more accurately Lunar found me) care of the benevolent omnipresent Blakey, whom I've known for several years and who has about as many different names as I used to. Not knowing enough about the series made this a time of utter confusion and major squik at events that didn't actually happen, but I'm getting over it. ^^ 1993-4 was about where I got into RPGs themselves, although living over in the UK meant that my Sega CD (which actually got stolen not long later) would not compel me into the world of Lunar a lot sooner than it already might have. Much is the pity.

No, instead I managed to stumble across the actual game in a format accessible to me while not actually looking for it. But one thing leads to another, and I'm suddenly off playing The Silver Star in leagues and bounds. Eternal Blue takes me a lot longer, outlasts my ejection from Oxford (although plays no part in its occurrence) and eventually I get back to it several months later.

But yeah. Rar. Lunar has made me closer to people, in ways that shared experiences and fan communication can do. It's played some hand in the weird and wonderful life I maintain today, a starry inkblot of random and intrigue and transcendental meditation. I use the term 'Lunar dragon' in defining myself, which makes some people jumpy but there's not much I can do about that. ^^; It did kick my gaming back into sharp reprocess, after the large gap I'd taken throughout last year in order that I might study. These days games really are more important, and I should study them as well. XD XD

I think I partially owe some of my more recent music appreciation to Lunar, as well. I'm not sure entirely, I liked music beforehand, but with a mixture of the focus present in Lunar's resonant tracks and a selfworked extrapolation of the importance of song within the world of Lunar (which I think worked quite well, and doesn't attempt to redefine anything, I hope) I do it more than I once did. Rather spiffy, yes. I could probably think of some more things but those are the most obvious - if some of it is a little vague. ;P

[kyle1992]

Mostly how this changed my life was that my friend had SSSC and he let me have it (along with some other games). About two to three years later I started playing it (the discs were all scratched up and I could get to the anime sequence of quark. Then it froze. SUCK!!!!!!) Then in 2006 I finally got EBC (for my Bday) and started playing it. But I really wanted to play SSSC so I got a PS2 and now i'm almost done with the game (in SSSC i'm only at the red dragon). If you could lend me some tips (other than mods or training) contact me at
ultimakids@aol.com
thanks : )

[Zophar]

Lunar has changed my life mostly in gaming. Before Lunar, all I had was platform games where I was just trying to time that jump and make it to the other side in one piece. But then my sister got Lunar: SSSC and I wanted to play that... but she wouldn't let me. So anyway I continued playing those games like I used to. Until one day when I was picking up a game for my game boy advance and I stumbled upon Lunar Legend.

I remembered the name: Lunar, from the days I watched my sister play. So I got this version... best... choice... ever. After beating Lunar Legend, I found my sister's copy of SSSC and I started playing that. By this time I was already hopelessly addicted to lunar. SSSC just added fuel to that 'fire'. Then from there I got Eternal Blue Complete.

So how did Lunar change my life as a gamer? I was playing one day and I thought: I wonder if there are other games like Lunar out there? So I started hunting for RPGs, as many as I could get my hands on. After EBC the next game I got was Chrono Cross and then Final Fantasy Chronicles (the one with FF4 and Chrono Trigger). And eventually I got a PS2 along with Kingdom Hearts and then Final Fantasy X soon after. I didn't even think about this FF7 till much later (good thing I didn't think of it earlier, it's way overrated). Lunar is what got me addicted into RPG's (in a nutshell).

And ever since I had played Lunar and learned how to use flash, I wanted to make a Lunar movie. Which I would in the long run (Lunar: Eternal Sapphire). I would never have made my most succesful movie series if I had never played Lunar.

And I'm sure Lunar has influenced how I look at things in the world and how I write stories too... maybe. I dunno.